Lesson 447 - Junior

Memory Verse

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness:  for they shall be filled" (Matthew 5:6).

Notes

When David was hunted and chased by Saul and his soldiers, David's soul (his very innermost self) panted and longed for God. He was very sad and his tears ran down day and night as his enemies mocked him and said, "Where is thy God?" He was like a deer that is chased by a pack of wolves until he is almost too tired and winded to go another step. If he does not find a hiding place, the wolves will eventually catch him, and the poor deer will be killed.

The Christian's Hiding Place

The Christian has an enemy, too. The Bible says, "Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" ([1PE:5:8]). The devil wants to devour the Christian, or take him by force away from serving Jesus, and make him a servant of the devil.

But the Christian has a hiding place in Jesus. We read in the Bible: "The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it and is safe" ([PRO:18:10]). We call upon Jesus and He rescues His own.

David's prayer was, "When shall I come and appear before God?" He looked forward to the time when he could come to the house of God in Jerusalem and kneel there in the presence of God. He, too, was looking for a hiding place. Are you eager to go to church? Do you look forward to meeting time so you can sing and pray and meet there with God? There you can also find help when trials and troubles come.

David's Counsel

As David thought of the many times he had gone to the Tabernacle just as God had told the Jewish people to do ([DEU:12:5-14]), he thought within himself: "Why do I feel so very sorrowful? Why am I restless and disturbed? I should be quiet and hope in God, because God will make a way for me to be again in His house in Jerusalem, and I shall know that His kind face is looking down upon me as I pray."

David felt his trouble was as great as the waves and billows of the ocean dashing over his head, yet he comforted himself, knowing that through all the daytime the loving kindness of the Lord was with him, and every night the song of the Lord was there. And it is just so with every Christian.

Close to God

Before you go to school in the morning, do you take time to read a portion of Scripture from the Bible and kneel down and ask the Lord to keep you pure and holy through the day? Then Jesus is near all through the day and in love and kindness He helps when you need Him. When the day is done, it is good again to read His Word, and to thank Him for the blessings of the day. In the night He sends Gospel songs to your heart to encourage and instruct you. Be sure to listen, for many times Jesus talks to people through the words of a song.

Why do we come to Zion, or the church? Is it not to praise God and pay our vows, the things we told God we would do when He saved us? "I will give YOU my life," we said; and each time we come to church to praise and pray, we search our heart. Are we still living altogether for God, or does the preaching from the Bible show up some selfishness in our life that needs to be corrected?

"O thou that hearest prayer, . . ." Who can come to the great God who hears prayer? Are there only certain people who may come to God in prayer? No. The Psalmist says, "Unto thee shall all flesh come." That means all people. Every person who lives now, or who ever has lived, has either prayed or will some time kneel and pray to God (Romans 14:11). Now every sinner can come to Jesus asking for forgiveness, and every Christian does come to Jesus to praise and thank Him and to ask help to please God in every way. Even those who refuse or neglect to pray now will kneel before God some day, and acknowledge Him.

Though sinners may speak against us and try to make trouble for us, if Jesus has washed our sins away, and our heart does not condemn us, we run to the hiding place in Jesus and we are safe there. We can just trust Him to work out all things for our good.

Chosen

"Blessed is the man whom thou chooses", . . ." Has He chosen you? Anyone can be saved, and if you are saved, you have been chosen to be a follower of Jesus, for Jesus said to His disciples, "I have chosen you" ([JHN:15:16]). "Blessed is the man whom thou chooses", and causest to approach unto thee, . . ." The Christian approaches, or comes near to God through prayer, through personal testimony, through listening to the preaching of the Word of God in the church. "That he may dwell in thy courts" -- the courts of the Tabernacle, the house of God. What a privilege it is to be chosen to take part in any church activity! How eager we are to be faithful in our place, whether it be to help our Sunday School teacher with her records, to play a musical instrument, to testify, or pray at the altar!

The Greatness of God

"By terrible things" (in great and mighty ways) God will answer us -- God who is not only the God of our salvation, but also the confidence and help of all who live in the ends of the earth and of them who are afar off upon the sea.

"By his strength." The Psalmist tries to tell us how great God is. By His power He created this earth and all that is in it. He spoke and it was done; He commanded and the mountains stood fast. He girded them with power so they would last through all the ages until God folds up the earth as a garment ([HEB:1:12]), and makes new heavens and a new earth ([1PE:3:13]). God stills the noise of the seas and their waves, as Jesus did on stormy -- Galilee, and He will some day still the tumult, the commotion and uproar of the wicked people of the earth. The tokens or indications of God's great power -- the storms, the thunders, the lightnings, the shooting stars, the eclipses of sun and moon, the tornadoes, the earthquakes -- are all fearful revelations of God's greatness to people everywhere. The sun that wakens us at dawn gives us joy as we go out to our daily duties, and the rainbow colours of the evening twilight sky give us joy as we think upon the beauty of God's handiwork.

Thanksgiving

"Thou visitest the earth." Think of God's coming down to see what parts of the earth need rain to prepare the ground for the ploughing and the seeding of corn! He opens the clouds to water the farmland. When it is ploughed into furrows the showers make it soft to receive the seed where it lies warm and moist as God watches over the sprouting of the tender plants.

"Thou crownest the year." God is shown as putting a diadem, or crown, upon the earth. In the beginning He created the sun, the moon, the stars, "for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years." And as they rotate in their orbits, giving light and heat alternately by day and night to all parts of the earth, God in His wise and tender care causes the grain and vegetables to grow and produce a fat crop. Even in many wilderness places where there is no ploughing and sowing, God has so provided that there are rich pastures for cattle.

The hills are covered with green, and sheep and cattle graze in the pastures. The valleys are covered with corn, wheat and barley. They all sing and shout for joy! There is a great harmony of praise to God, who has in love provided for the spiritual and temporal needs of boys and girls and men and women in all the earth.

Questions

1. How did David express his great longing to be in the sanctuary, the house of God?

2. How did he comfort himself when his enemies hunted and chased him and he could not appear in the Tabernacle at Jerusalem'

3. What did God do to help David in the daytime? and in the night?

4. What did David do when he lay on his bed at night?

5. What should be our purpose when we go to church?

6. Who shall come before God in prayer?

7. Who is the blessed man?

8. What are some of the things that God does to reveal His greatness to people in all the earth?

9. With what does God visit the earth so it may produce food for man and beast?

10. Of what does the Psalmist speak when he says, "They shout for joy, they also sing"?